I'm an LA-based writer and management consultant. I was an adviser and editor for many years for the father of modern leadership studies, the late USC professor Warren Bennis. And over the past twenty years, I’ve been a chief storyteller for USC, during a time in which Bennis and other leaders helped it skyrocket in global reputation and productivity. I bring a different perspective to leadership--some sober perspective about the realities of being "in charge," along with advice on how to tell great stories that mobilize great communities. I've written for dozens of publications around the world, including the Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor and Japan Times. I serve as a University Fellow at USC’s Center for Public Diplomacy and am a member of the Pacific Council for International Policy. My book Leadership Is Hell (Figueroa Press, 2014) is available on Amazon; all proceeds benefit programs that make college accessible to promising LA urban schoolchildren.

Study: Millennials' Work Ethic Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

A massive Bentley University study of millennials and their bosses finds that older fogies really do think millennials don’t work hard enough.

As noted in a related post, the survey found that 15% of all respondents identified “work ethic” as the crucial ingredient in preparation for the workplace. But here’s where it gets interesting: 23% of business decision makers and 18% of corporate recruiters identified work ethic as crucial. But only 7% of high school students and 9% of college students did so.

There are plenty of good feelings among millennials and their elders. Most respondents (61%) say millennials are easy to relate to. But 66% of all respondents say they’re difficult to manage. And a majority, 51%, say they lack respect for others.

Bentley shares some other intriguing results:

Almost 9 in 10 millennials (89%) say they have a strong work ethic. But only 74% of non-millennials believe they have as good a work ethic as that of older generations.

55% of millennials say they’re willing to “pay their dues.” But 70% of non-millennials say that millennials aren’t as willing as they should be.

About two-thirds of employers (63% percent of business decision makers and 68% of recruiters) say their organizations struggle to manage millennials.

Majorities (55% of business decision makers and 62% of recruiters) say that retaining millennials is a challenge.

66% of millennials feel misunderstood by their elders.

Still, most millennials know they need to change: Majorities of millennials and non-millennials agree that millennials will need to change to better fit the workplace. The figure is 56% for millennials, 67% for non-millennials, 63% for business decision makers, and a surprisingly modest 50% for corporate recruiters).

Such findings confirm a reality gap between millennials and their elders. But Megan Abbott, a millennial life coach and founder of Fruition Personal Coaching, offers a caution: “Older employers can disapprove and judge millennial values as inferior to their own … or they can accept and strive to understand what drives this new generation.”

Abbott, who often serves as a mediator in companies to bridge older and younger generations of workers, tells me that the work ethic issue results from a different set of goals and values.

“Older generations tend to glorify hard work as a virtue in and of itself,” she says. “But millennials typically only value work insofar as it creates the results, or the acknowledgment or the growth they desire.”

She says millennials want to see “a direct impact and return for their efforts”—and for that reason, they’re more likely to leave jobs in a way that their ladder-climbing elders dismiss as “unrealistic.”

Other findings in the Bentley survey seem to confirm that millennials are more attracted to finding meaning and purpose than to just climbing a corporate ladder:

85% of millennials want to work for a socially responsible or ethical company.

95% percent of millennials say that a company’s reputation matters to them. And 91% say that a company’s social impact efforts are important when they are considering which companies to work for.

A majority of millennials (51%) have concerns and doubts about whether most businesses do the right thing.

“You can curse them for what they’re not, or you can leverage them for what they are,” Abbott tells me. “Millennials tend to be self-confident, creative, optimistic, energetic, social-minded, and highly innovative. These characteristics can reap huge rewards for employers who are willing to understand the total package they come delivered in.”

[Please share your own insights and experiences with our Forbes.com community in the comments section. And hit "Follow" at the top of the page to receive notification of more career and management advice from Rob Asghar.]

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